There is an image forming device such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, or a multi-functional unit having these functions, which is provided with a cooling device for cooling a device provided around a device which liberates heat (e.g., a fixing device). For example, Patent document 1 discloses an image forming device provided with a liquid-cooling type cooling device for cooling a process unit that is removable with respect to the body of the image forming device.
Moreover, in recent years, for the purpose of improving printing speed, amount of heat provided to paper at the time of image fixing is increasing, so that paper curling as well as a phenomenon, so-called blocking, in which softened toner sticks to a different sheet of paper is becoming more likely to occur. Thus, in order to prevent these drawbacks, paper discharged from the fixing device is cooled by the cooling device. For example, Patent document 2 discloses an image forming device having a heat pipe as a unit for cooling paper.
In general, for maintenance and paper jamming processes, a fixing device and a process unit, etc., are arranged so that they can be pulled out with respect to the image foaming device body. Moreover, it is desired that the maintenance and paper jamming processes are conducted after cooling the fixing device with the cooling device since the fixing device has reached high temperature immediately after disabling, etc. Similarly, as the process unit, etc. could also have heated up due to receiving heat from the fixing device, it is preferable to conduct the maintenance and paper jamming processes after cooling.
However, in case of the image forming device disclosed in Patent document 1, pulling out the process unit separates a cooling pipe provided at the process unit and a circulation pump provided at the image forming device body, so that cooling is not conducted in such a state. Therefore, when conducting maintenance, etc., it is likely that the process unit remains at high temperature, so that touching the process unit may be dangerous. Moreover, a cooling liquid which remains at a connecting section (a separating section) dropping into the image forming device at the time of separating the cooling pipe and the circulation pipe may detrimentally affect subsequent image forming. Furthermore, when a contaminant such as toner or paper powder that scatters within the device fixes to the cooling liquid which remains in the connecting section (separating section), the contaminant finds its way into the cooling device, possibly causing degradation of the cooling liquid, a failure of the circulation pump, etc.
On the other hand, while it is also possible to integrally arrange the circulation pump and the process unit so as to make it possible for the cooling liquid to circulate even when being pulled out, this leads to an increased size of the process unit, thus leading to reduced capabilities for maintenance and paper jamming processes. Moreover, an increased sized process unit leads to the necessity of increasing the strength of a housing which supports the same, running counter to a goal of reduced size and weight.
Furthermore, the above problem may occur not only for the process unit, but similarly also for any fixing device and other devices requiring cooling.